My Life’s Reward

My friends , My family, do not weep,
as I enter my eternal sleep
I chose to live a righteous path,
no fear to face, the LORD OF SPIRITS wrath

Through my faith, my soul is won,
as I have reached, my life paths completion,
I once was living with evil behavior,
now I rejoice in my faith in our savior

rejoice for me, for my death, I willing embrace
for I no longer, had to fear disgrace,
in the record of my life’s story,
written in the BOOK OF LIFE, is “Glory”

Having confidence in our LORD
Everlasting happiness, is my final reward
My heavenly portion of happiness will far exceed,
any comfort I felt to my earthy needs

I waited with patient hope, praying to the ELECTED SON,
as Angels record my goodness to the MIGHTY ONE
my cries of judgement, has been heard, can’t you see
as the gates of HEAVEN are open to me

Clear the tears, from your eyes, rejoice insted,
for I have a place in HEAVEN, for the life I led.

- – – written by Angela Hutcherson-Jenkins

This poem was written for a close family friend who passed away, I was there in her finally hours. She inspired me so much with her faith in our saviour and her happiness in dying. She told me family and friends are selfish to want their loved ones to keep living, that they should rejoice in their finally being able to have their place in heaven, that if we loved them we wouldn’t cry and feel regret for their deaths, we should celebrate that they are with the Lord and their pain and troubles on earth has finally ended. – Angela Hutcherson-Jenkins

Preacher’s Kid (2010)

Director: Stan Foster
Release Date: 29 January 2010

Cast : Letoya Luckett, Kiki Sheard, Durrel Babbs, Clifton Powell, Gregalan Williams, Sharif Atkins

This story talks about Angie. She is a twenties girl, the Pastor´s daughter, who wanted to experience all the things of this world. She said ‘I am tired of being the Pastor´s daugther’ and she disobeyed her father and started to go out to nightclubs. Then she meets Devlin who is a singer. She was so delighted by the fame that he has, and he became her first love. Shortly after she preferred to go with him, than to be at the church with her real friends and her Father. Apparently Devlin loved her, but he was just taking advantage of the situation.

She continued with Devlin, thinking that she would get success : fame, luxury, money, in short, all the ephemeral things that the world has to offer. She changed her way of dressing, habits and many things just to be a famous person. (This world can offer you a lot of money, jewelry, trips, but what good will it be for a man even if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Matthew 16:26, do not be distracted or do not compare those things with the unconditional love of God. If you believe in God, He will give you all that you need).

Finally when she realized the kind of person that Devlin was, she just wanted to go home, but thought that her father would not forgive her. So she continued to suffer the ill-treatment of Devlin, but he always tried to justify his actions.

Until the day she left him. And got back home like the prodigal son in Bible. There we see the great forgiving love of her father who receives her with open arms. As the bible says: “But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found” – Luke 15:32

However it is not necessary that we all should pass through these type of cases, to realize our Heavenly Father’s abundant love for us. If you are on the right way to God, go ahead and do not stop for anything or anyone. You should accept that He guides your life because the enemy will say, “Enjoy the things of this world for now, and about the consequences we will talk later” and our lovely God says, “Believe in me and you will have eternal life”.

You choose! A short lived pleasure on earth OR eternal life with God?

- – - written by Flor Pérez

Do Ghosts Exist? A confusing question for all.

Yes, spirits do exist and sometimes they pay a visit too.

Forbidden Area

First, the Church forbids us to conjure up the dead – (Catechism of the Catholic Church 2116-2117)

God’s law condemned spirit mediums, saying: “Do not turn yourselves to the spirit mediums, and do not consult professional foretellers of events, so as to become unclean by them” – Leviticus 19:31

Peter Kreeft in his book Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Heaven (pages 34-35) says the reason for “this stricture is probably protection against the danger of deception by evil spirits. We are out of our depth, our knowledge, and our control once we open the doors to the supernatural. The only openings that are safe for us are the ones God has approved: revelation, prayer, His own miracles, sacraments, and primarily Christ Himself…The danger is not physical but spiritual, and spiritual danger always centers on deception.”

3 Kinds of Ghosts

We can distinguish three kinds of ghosts.

First, the most familiar kind: the sad ones, the wispy ones. They seem to be working out some unfinished earthly business, or suffering some purgatorial purification until released from their earthly business. These ghosts would seem to be the ones who just barely made it to Purgatory, who feel little or no joy yet and who need to learn many painful lessons about their past lives on earth.

Second, there are malicious and deceptive spirits—and since they are deceptive, they hardly ever appear malicious. These are the ones who respond to conjurings at seances. They probably come from Hell. Even the chance of that happening should be sufficient to terrify away all temptations to necromancy.

Third, there are bright, happy spirits of dead friends and family, especially spouses, who appear unbidden, at God’s will, not ours, with messages of hope and love. They seem to come from Heaven. Unlike the purgatorial ghosts who come back primarily for their own sakes, these bright spirits come back for the sake of us the living, to tell us all is well. They are aped by evil spirits who say the same, who speak ‘peace, peace, when there is no peace’. But the deception works only one way: the fake can deceive by appearing genuine, but the genuine never deceives by appearing fake.

Heavenly spirits always convince us that they are genuinely good. Even the bright spirits appear ghostlike to us because a ghost of any type is one whose substance does not belong in or come from this world. In Heaven these spirits are not ghosts but real, solid and substantial because they are at home there: One can’t be a ghost in one’s own country.

That there are all three kinds of ghosts is enormously likely. Even taking into account our penchant to deceive and be deceived, our credulity and fakery, there remain so many trustworthy accounts of all three types of ghosts – trustworthy by every ordinary empirical and psychological standard – that only a dogmatic prejudice against them could prevent us from believing they exist. We believe an old apple woman when she says she ate an apple; but when she says she saw a ghost, we say ‘But she’s only an old apple woman.’ A most undemocratic and unscientific prejudice.

No Lost Souls

Once a person dies, that person’s soul is immediately judged.

And just as it is appointed for men to die once, and after that comes judgment - (Heb. 9:27)

There are no “Lost Souls” i.e. there are no souls that are caught between death and eternity unable to cross over to the other side. After death, a soul is judged and is either saved or damned. A damned soul is in hell; a saved soul is either in heaven or in purgatory.

That said, it may be that purgatory might in some way involve the life one lived here on earth. It is not incompatible with a belief in purgatory to believe that our purgation might include “revisiting” places that were significant during our earthly lives. It may be that occasionally God allows people to see such souls in order to inspire prayers for them or in some way to teach a lesson to the people who see them.

Conclusion on Ghosts

Although Church teaching does not rule out the possibility of ghosts, and although it also does not rule out the possibility that God might allow us to see ghosts on occasions, the Church does forbid us from attempting to initiate occult contact with departed souls.

All forms of divination are to be rejected: recourse to Satan or demons, conjuring up the dead or other practices falsely supposed to “unveil” the future. Consulting horoscopes, astrology, palm reading, interpretation of omens and lots, the phenomena of clairvoyance, and recourse to mediums all conceal a desire for power over time, history, and, in the last analysis, other human beings, as well as a wish to conciliate hidden powers. They contradict the honor, respect, and loving fear that we owe to God alone – (Catechism of the Catholic Church 2116).